Transparent Chronology
by gigiree123
Summary: AU: "What you believe is of little consequence. The path chooses the traveler. The traveler has no choice." And so she walks the path towards the sun, no matter how long it takes. But it's okay to get a little lost, right?
1. Chapter 1

**a/n:I'm sorry! I'm working on Reluctant I promise! But this...**

**when will i learn to stop the plot bunny. Spoilers: Based on recent chapters and the whole reincarnation thing, I've seen so many postulating that Hinata might be "someone's". As much as I love Hinata and her adorableness, I don't think it's plausible at all. But then again, anything can happen, so we'll see. But all the theorizing gave me this idea, and I just could not get it out of my head. I know there are many fics already having Naruto do the same thing, but I think it would be interesting to see Hinata do this.**

**Take note, there will be no overpowered Hinata here! And so let us begin!**

* * *

**The path chooses the traveler**

A grotesque mockery of a tree loomed on the horizon, and all she could see were eyes, eyes everywhere. Its branches grew and grew, covering the sky and reaching for the sun. The moon turned blood red, red as the Sharingan that had been a part of it all, and it was then that she missed the color white the most. The white of the Byakugan, pure and unsullied.

The Alliance was done for; the Kage were defeated and Naruto-kun was…was…

Well…lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, his heart stopped and Sakura's hand still stuck in his chest, desperately trying to wake him up. Black Zetsu had taken their only chance at saving him, and Obito had given in so _**easily.**_ His body was being used, for the ultimate end, for what he had wanted to start, despite his final regrets.

She stood speechless as the tears ran down her pale face, and her hair stuck uncomfortably close to her neck, the heat of the setting sun and the red of the sky reflected in her white gaze. Neji was impaled on a couple of wooden sticks…she almost wanted to laugh at the stupidity of it all. They had all worked so hard, trying _again _and _again._

They had been so close…she had been so close. But they had failed and so it was time.

Madara's maniacal, ridiculously clichéd villainous laugh rang through the desert, and the tree's fruit grew considerably larger, its thick violet, red skin pulsating grossly. The branch inched closer and closer to his outstretched hand as he dodged the futile attacks.

The tree _wanted _him to eat its fruit, not like the first time.

The wind blew faster and then he pulled the ripe fruit off the stem, his hand clenching so tightly that the crimson juice and pulp ran down his hand and mingled with the ugly brightness of his chakra cloak. The hazy sunlight was slowly burning away, and she knew it was done.

"I promised…we promised." She muttered, crying and she refused to look behind her, knowing well what her Byakugan had seen. Kiba bleeding, dying. Shino's insects, drowning in his blood and weakened without his chakra. Akamaru in …half.

Ino's eyes half closed and her pretty face obliterated. Shikamaru's intelligence blown on the dirty floor, his precious thoughts leaking out like water from a tipped over vase.

Chouji, Lee, Tenten were standing on their last legs, trembling.

Sasuke-san was dead already.

Her family, clansmen were gone; as rest of the world would soon be.

She would not look back. Day was fading fast.

If one were to look at the situation objectively, she knew the biggest question that would arise. How the _**HELL **_was weak little Hinata Hyuuga still alive after all this?

It was simple really…who would notice her? This wisp of a girl, a see through ghost…an insignificant blip on the radar in the lives of these Gods of Shinobi. She had fought in self-defense, preserving her life, like a coward. But then again, she had learned that it was the best to be practical, as she was a very logical person by nature. And though she felt the fight and the Will of Fire burn through her veins, her legs itched to jump in and shout and fight the very sun itself.

But this would not do, she had learned it the hard way that no matter whatshe was always, always limited.

So she used the last of her strength to leap to where Madara was, a reckless abandon filling her as the trees roots extended towards those unconscious and ready to throw them all into a life of illusion and _supposedly _without suffering.

She was sort of curious, what kind of life would she find behind that veil, inside the Moon's eye?

She could not afford to find out. Not now and **not** **ever**.

So the pale eyed ghost, the insignificant blip on the radar leapt in front of the grinning Madara and he waited for her futile attack.

He laughed and looked at her incredulously as she pulled out a kunai, her fingers steady.

"HINATA-CHAN, NOOO!" She heard Tenten's cry, and Chouji's shout, and Sakura's sob.

She ignored them, kunai at the ready, the reckless rush of adrenaline pushing her to stupidity and revenge.

"Madara Uchiha…what you have done is unforgivable." She said simply, flatly with the air of one who had said the same lines over and over. And he stilled, intrigued by the bacterium that had dared to face him.

Such a transparent little thing, he thought. He could see her eyes and the tear tracks and the white of the Byakugan, cold and unwavering. And so he nodded, intrigued. His staff was at the ready to tear her apart…just as soon as she finished the customary heroic speech and last stand.

The mere surprise of such a weakling having the gall to challenge him made him stop. The universe was trying to amuse him further, wasn't it?

"I've heard it all, little Hyuuga." He smiled, his hand raised. The fruit was still in his grasp, just crying to be tasted, to be used. Hinata glanced at it, licking her lips and Madara smiled, knowing the lure of power to weaklings.

The shouts of her friends, and the cadavers of her comrades were fresh as anything in her mind as she looked him in the eye, raising her kunai.

'_I'll see you soon, Naruto-kun...everyone…'_

Then she did the unexpected. Timid little Hinata Hyuga, the little blip on a radar, smiled. It was bittersweet, but she smiled, her eyes glinting in defiance.

Then her kunai turned inwards, and straight through her chunin vest, into her heart. She heard the satisfying squelch of flesh tearing itself against metal and felt a brief breathlessness. Her head struggled to hold itself up, her eyes flickered, but even so, she managed to look up at a stunned Madara.

And in her lilting and perfectly cheery voice, she said…** "Fuck you."**

She dimly noted that the effect was ruined by her choking on her own blood, but she had gotten the message through.

Her heart stopped beating, just as Naruto's had…just as so many others today. She felt her sight grow dark and her body fall forward.

'_Five…' _Was the last thing to cross her mind before she died.

* * *

"_I thought- I thought there was no such thing as destiny." She whispered hoarsely, clinging desperately to an ideal broken on the futility of their plight, the uselessness of her life._

_And her companion gave her that same self-assured, enigmatic smile. Her plump lips stretching into an alien gesture that looked so out of place on the white, white face. _

'_A ghost or a Grim Reaper?' Hinata had thought upon seeing her companion for the first time._

_Indeed the whiteness of her attire, the silver of her hair, of her __**eyes**_ _lent themselves to the image. _

"_Is there no such thing?" __**She **__replied, suddenly, her voice surprisingly soft and lilting. She spoke in a maternal tinge in her speech, and something about it made Hinata shiver. _

_It did not sound right._

_But then again, maybe motherly fit more so than she thought, because this woman was after all her…_

"_Honorable Great Grandmother, I believe-" She was stopped by a light trill of a laugh, and she stood aghast as the mother of Shinobi laughed at her. A delicate hand came to cover the giggling mouth, ever so polite and ladylike. _

_She never let little Hinata forget that she was still a princess._

_The woman looked down at the younger girl, her progeny, her descendant. What a tiny little girl, so transparent and as intangible as the cold light of the stars. Her luminescence lost in the multitude of even brighter celestial bodies. She found it laughable that this girl was one of her direct descendants; the Hyuga had succeeded in keeping their line pure…all to produce this __**ghost **__of a girl._

"_What you believe is of little consequence. The path chooses the traveler. The traveler has no choice."_

"_So why, w-why am I here?" Hinata asked, reeling still from the memory of her last time around. "What can someone like me do, when Naruto-kun and Sasuke-san, when the Kage…the Kage…could do nothing?!"_

_The woman in white shifted, and her smile grew, splitting her pretty face nearly in two. "Because you have no __**self.**__ You who are as a ghost, transparent and invisible…can slip in between the cracks, so to speak."_

_Hinata frowned, already knowing how invisible she had been. She had spent entire life fighting against it, strengthening herself. But it seemed even the Mother of Shinobi noticed her inadequacies, and the answer did not make her all the more reassured._

'_Who is the ghost? Her or me…'_

_But she had promised, promised __**all**__ of them and so she readied herself again, her very self aching to start, to leave this white void. Dressed still in her dirty Chunin vest and fatigues, she dusted herself off, feeling slightly ashamed at her state of being. Of course her clothes could not compare to the silky richness of her companion's cream robes._

_She looked at her hands, coated in blood. __**His **__blood, and the tears fell down, because she had been unable to save them again. Her resolve renewed itself, her back straightened and her mouth fell into a thin line. She needed to find the sun again, and so she turned her back on her companion, fists clenching and chakra rising._

"_How far will you go this time, little one?" She asked uncharacteristically, her cold tone curious for not the first time._

"_Towards the sun." Hinata replied simply, still looking towards where she thought the horizon would have been. _

"_Remember, you are __**limited.**__" The princess chided, an amused tone coloring her words._

_Hinata nodded, having learned that the hard way. Then again her "companion" was not very much help with the whole endeavor. She was beginning to think it was a game to the specter, and she knew much more than she was letting on. But right now was not the time for such thoughts, and this time she had a plan…sort of._

_She closed her eyes thinking. The image of three posts and a grinning boy came to mind, and she smiled fondly. Her chakra flared, wisps of blue essence cradled her and her hair lifted in a playful dance, the same sensation as before ran up her spine. It was the feeling of stars running through her veins and clouds running through her head. She lifted a hand in the air, saying farewell to her companion._

_And then just like that, she was gone._

_The ghost hummed thoughtfully in the wake of Hinata's absence, waiting again because she was simply a cynical type of being._


	2. Chapter 2

_**a/n: Thank you AYRMED AND ILVERIA!**_

_**On the First Time Through**_

"_Are you prepared?" She asked impatiently, waiting for the sobbing girl's response._

_Hinata's tears continued to fall, because no matter what happened, she had just come from a place where death had been rampant. She had seen everyone she held dear die and she herself had refused to succumb to the illusion, and so opted for a suicidal last stand, one last charge against that bastard named Madara Uchiha._

_She knew she would die, but she had hoped…believed with all her heart that she would have been with all of them again in the next life._

_And now here she was, caught in some limbo filled with nothing but white. Heck, even its only inhabitant was all white. White hair, white robes, pale face, white eyes and a very cold and detached demeanor. She just wanted to go where everyone else had gone, where they would be waiting._

_And now Kaguya-hime-sama, __**the**__** Kaguya-hime** was telling her she could go back? It made no sense._

"_W-why?" She asked, trembling. _

"_Simply because you are you." Kaguya answered, and it still made no sense to Hinata Hyuuga. "Now do you accept or not?"_

_She extended a pale hand towards the kneeling girl, her long crimson nails glinting almost in a threatening manner. Hinata looked up into eyes as white as her own, and she was filled with a deep sense of despair and her regrets just before dying had come back to haunt her._

_If back then, she had just fought harder, trained more? If back then, she had told Naruto-kun she had loved him? If back then, she had become the heiress sooner, would things have been better? If back then, they had just known more?_

_And the possibilities opened up before her, endless and frightening. What could she do with this new chance? Would __**she**__, timid little Hinata Hyuuga, be able to change the course of their tragic story?_

_Then she nodded, because she had promised that she would do her damnest to protect them, to save them. She had promised to walk by __**his **__side._

_She place a blood caked hand into Kaguya's own immaculate grip, and Hinata shivered because her palms were chilled. Kaguya smiled, her eyes glowing much too brightly and Hinata had to look away. _

_She felt her chakra rise, and she grew astonished, because she thought she had had no more when she died. An unknown essence began to fill her being, and she felt brighter than she ever had. She felt as if she could fly at warp speed, touch the planets and dance on the stars. Her dark hair mixed and mingled with Kaguya's silver strands as the transaction continued. And in her memories, she saw her friends and their laughter. They passed her by like photos in an old album, preserved in time just like the flowers she had loved to press so much._

_Sakura in her doctor's coat, gently comforting a sick patient._

_Tenten, Lee and…Neji-nii sparring in a field of tall grass, elegant and strong in their stances._

_Sai painting a scenic view of Konoha as Team 7 looked on._

_Shikamaru and Chouji at Yakiniku, waving at a smiling Ino covered in flower petals._

_A surly twelve year old Sasuke giving the tiniest grin as he looked at …_

_Naruto._

_Then it was Naruto at Ichiraku's. Naruto smiling at her weirdness, Naruto getting up after being beaten down by her brother. Naruto looking towards the sun, shining just as warm. Naruto telling her she was strong too._

_The tears continued to fall, and when the image of a brightly smiling Naruto crossed her mind, a remnant of the day he had returned from training with Jiraiya, when the future had been so warm and full of hope._

_Kaguya felt it when Hinata had chosen her point of return, her tiny hand tightening its grip ever so slightly._

_Then Hinata felt herself…breaking apart. It was painless and disconcerting as she could see little by little herself becoming transparent. Her self was breaking into infinite particles, and she watched in awe as the blue and white of their chakra seemed to cradle the parts of her, carrying them to who knows where. _

"_W-what?" She asked, her question referring to everything that was happening. And the strangest sensation of stars in her veins and clouds in her head swept through her._

_Kaguya merely gave a last warning. "You are limited."_

_And with that Hinata was gone in a flare of blue. Brilliant motes of light were left in her wake, and Kaguya stretched her catch one at the tip of her finger. _

"_What an odd feeling. It's so warm…"_

_She waited, because she knew this first time would not be the last._

* * *

She woke up with a gasp, her hair sticking to her back uncomfortably and the sweat running down her neck and soaking her lavender jacket.

In the back of her mind, she heard a muted droning, as if someone had tuned into a radio station with a fuzzy signal. Her eyes closed again, hoping to reorient herself and she felt scared. Her heart was racing and she clutched at her chest, were she had dreamt and _felt _the pain of a gaping hole. Her heart had been extricated in her last stand by….someone.

_Red eyes…red moon…white eyes…white world_

Her head was pounding, and she struggled to grasp the tendrils of memory, the images treading the edges of her thoughts. She squinted, as it was like trying to cup water in one's hands when one was dying of thirst; imperative and difficult.

Then it hit her, the memories alien and unlike anything she had ever fathomed flooded her mind's eye, and she began to breathe rapidly, her body unable to accept the absurdity of her situation. Before she began to hyperventilate, she pressed her hands against her mouth, hoping to stifle some of her breath and her panic along with it.

Because she had seen everyone die, because the world had been ending when she last saw it. And because she could smell the crisp scent of spring and newly grown leaves that reminded her so much of home that it hurt. She opened her eyes fully, wondering where she was.

She shrugged her shoulders to relieve some of their stiffness, and she felt her fingers clutching the fragile stalks of grass. She was trembling, she noted dimly and then her eyes looked up at the blue sky through the dappled branches of a large oak. She marveled at the simplicity of the azure canvas swept with the white of the clouds.

Then the droning became clear, and the voices became distinct.

"Come on, please. I need a team!"

"Sorry, no can do! Akamaru and I are already assigned to a mission."

'_That's… Naruto-kun and…Kiba-kun!' _

Her eyes widened disproportionately, and she knew what was coming next. Soon she saw more blue, a blue so deep, beautiful and familiar, she grew dizzy. It was a blue she had missed even more than the blue of the sky. She felt a heavy pressure behind her eyes.

He grinned, his whiskers distorting in his glee and his eyes burning with determination. His thumb pointed towards himself, and he exclaimed. "Hinata! Don't say anything, and come with me!"

And then the silence stretched for several long seconds, because the last time she had seen this precious, precious person, he had had a gaping hole in the middle of his chest and his eyes been closed forever. She had made a final stand, hoping to see him and everyone again, and now…

"Hinata?" He asked, as he saw her cheeks flush and her eyes open wide.

Her lips parted in surprise and her eyes grew bright with tears. Her eyes shone like stars, the color wavering between white and quicksilver. They seemed translucent and it was if he could read every single emotion and thought going on through that odd head of hers. But something was buried deep, deeper than he felt he could reach, and whatever it was…It was hurting her. But then slowly, a smile spread across her face, lighting it up in ways he had never known. He sucked in a breath, because he had never noticed how pretty she could look.

Then her tears fell and he was unprepared for it all.

He began to freak out, waving his hands about in confusion and fear; somewhat expecting a blow to the head or for the girl to have one of her weird fainting spells.

"Gaaah! H-hinata, I'm so sorry! Don't cry!" He looked at her, panic blocking his throat as he saw Kiba and Shino approaching.

Then she leapt forward, her soft sobs turning into louder keening, and he felt her slim arms around his neck. He nearly fell backwards from the suddenness, and then he felt her lips at his cheek, wet and trembling.

"You're here…you're here." Was all she could say, completely forgetting any shyness she should have had at _this_ point in time. All thoughts of keeping her cover and fitting in with her old personality flew out the window, because really with eyes so blue and the scent of Ramen filling her nose and his flaxen hair tickling her cheeks, reality had hit her quicker than when she had initially woken up.

Naruto smiled fondly, slightly alarmed at her display. He felt his cheeks warm up as Kiba and Shino gazed on in incredulity, their jaws agape. And shrugging it off, he wrapped his arms around the still crying girl, his opinion of Hinata Hyuuga changing by the second.

She heard footsteps approaching, and gasped when she saw her best friends approaching, she extricated herself from Naruto, to his silent disappointment.

And then when Shino, Kiba and Akamaru came closer in worry for their sweet teammate, they were unexpectedly assaulted by tiny arms, straining so hard to engulf them all in a hug. Her head was buried in Kiba's jacket, her hand gripping the hem of Shino's. She was laughing. She was crying.

They tried their best to pry out an explanation from her unintelligible replies.

Then she wiped away her tears, relief flooding through her.

"You're all still the same." She said lightly, quickly realizing that she was acting odd to them. To them who had been dead, to them whose blood had decorated her hands as she tried desperately to bring them back.

Then she began to laugh again, the relief and immeasurable joy of seeing them again, hearing them again, filled her to the brim. Her giggles echoed across the street. And they laughed as well, because her statement seemed to be a commentary on their previous conversation. Kiba and Shino looked at their teammate in slight relief, attributing her strange crying fit to Naruto's return from his training.

Naruto looked on bemused at their interactions, and his hand unconsciously reached for his cheek, exactly where Hinata Hyuga's lips had touched his skin. He looked on in awe as he saw her uninhibited for the first time, and he wondered how come he had never looked closer at someone who could shine so brightly. The heat rose to his face as he watched her giggling and talking animatedly, her eyes gleaming in her unabashed joy.

His reverie was broken when he saw something out of place on her person. Kiba noticed too.

"Hey Hinata, what's that?!" Kiba exclaimed suddenly, pointing towards a strand of her hair resting on her shoulder.

She looked to the side, pulling at the hair until it came into full view, and her heart nearly stopped, because it was glinting silver.

"_You are limited."_

The words rang through her head, and she reeled inwardly, her breath catching, because somehow she knew that **this **had everything to do with **that**.

* * *

She looked at her reflection in the mirror, one hand grasping the long strand of white hair on her right side. No matter which way she tried to hide it, the silver strands would be seen peeking out from behind the layers of her normal dark hair. Her father and Neji-nii-san had nearly had twin incidents of cardiac arrest when they had seen the streak of white, thinking that she was going through some sort of silly, and undignified rebellious phase.

There worries had been all but thrown out the window when upon seeing their incredulous expressions; she had laughed and engulfed them in a too tight hug. Then she had promptly danced away, humming a sprightly tune leaving a bewildered Hiashi and Neji behind.

Her smile faltered as she perused the silvery hairs cascading down her shoulder. It was odd, really. _**She **_had never mentioned anything about this, and Hinata's heart quickened in fear because the warning that had echoed in her thoughts was ominous.

'_I am limited? In what way?'_

She opened the small drawer of her vanity, the dim lamp light illuminating a pair of heavy scissors. Hinata grasped the handle with trembling fingers, and without hesitation snipped off the white strand. She wanted to laugh as she admired her handiwork, because now her hair was uneven. She turned back to the cut off strands, ready to dispose of them. She was therefore very surprised to find that they were gone, nowhere to be seen.

She frowned, and then the tightness in her chest that had persisted ever since day one, as if nudging her in a different direction, flared up. She clutched at her thudding heart, the piercing pain radiating across and she fell to her knees, her hair cascading around her as she struggled to breath. The clatter of the scissors was deafening as they on the wooden floor.

The pain was so great, and because she knew innately that this had everything to do with the hair she had just cut off, she wished out loud, gasping.

"P-please bring it back."

She held in the cry, and the room turned blurry, distorted. The familiar feeling of clouds in her head and stars in her blood returned and then the pain was gone. She glanced around, feeling as if she had never had the pain in the first place. With trembling hands she pulled forwards a strand of hair from her right shoulder.

It was as bone white as the moon, glinting in the lamplight. She blinked in surprise as somewhere deep down, she realized that she had just shifted time.

* * *

She committed mistake after mistake; blunder after blunder. And the tight feeling in her chest and the niggling thoughts at the back of her mind told her this was another one. But she was at a loss, running into dead ends and solutions. Because if one wanted to stop the end of the world, where did one start.

So a mere two weeks after her second chance had begun, she found herself here. She glanced around the room, taking in the familiar setting. The large open windows, the mahogany desk, the water pitcher decorated with elaborate purple azaleas, its matching mug and several picture frames placed here and there.

She looked at the calendar on the Hokage's desk, mentally cringing as _that _day loomed closer and closer. The day Jiraiya-sama would perish, and when the whole Pein fiasco would start. She clutched at her ribs, where there once had been…or maybe there would be…a scar.

She shook her head, indigo and silvery tendrils flying to and fro as her memories mixed and mingled in her head. It had been so confusing, because she remembered everything from her first life. She knew what should happen and what would happen. It had led to several slip-ups in tense and she had garnered a sort of reputation as being at least marginally clairvoyant. (The unexpected white streak of hair had not helped in the least, and the initial curiosity had been mortifying.)

All seeing eyes indeed, they had joked lightly. But then again, they knew that something like that was extremely rare and unlikely, and so she did not worry. Once in a while, she would catch Shikamaru giving her a quizzical look, as if discerning the cause of her strange mannerisms and behavior. And it was times like that when she found herself stuttering to cover her origins. Then he would quickly sigh and shrug his shoulders, as if saying it was not worth his time to investigate. She had never prized the Nara laziness more than in those moments.

Then again, not everything had been exactly the same. Her first evident blunder had been embracing Naruto, giving into her ardent relief and happiness. Then she had kissed him on the cheek, and she still blushed to think that she had done something so audacious. It had resulted in a more comfortable relationship with Naruto-kun, and then that had blossomed into a wonderful friendship, and she found herself relishing in this new development; even if she knew it had been a mistake.

But then again, everything would be done with, everything would be gone if she did not change the course of the future.

The click of the door had her turning in surprise, and she relaxed visibly when the Tsunade-sama strode in, perfectly hale and healthy. Hinata's lips trembled and her body hummed with joy; the same joy she felt every time she saw someone who had been dead in her first life, alive and talking.

She swiftly got up off of the plump arm chair, her toes wiggling in her nervousness and her back bent into a slight bow. She tugged at her sleeves, still getting used to the lavender color that had replaced her flak jacket from the war. (It felt so strange, this going backwards and then forwards.)

Tsunade turned her tawny gaze towards the seemingly timid girl, noting the way that her shoulders turned inwards, and her eyes looked at the ground. This girl looked as if she could so easily be as transient and translucent as the mists that hung over Konoha in the mornings.

She grew curious, because Hinata rarely sought her out of her own volition, and she supposed it was because the Hyuuga were a private clan, keeping to themselves. But then again, it could simply be because this girl was so darn shy. So naturally, her curiosity peaked at the prospect of what the girl might say.

"Hinata-chan, to what do I owe the pleasure?" She greeted with a warm grin, and gestured to the girl to resume sitting.

Hinata watched impassively as her Hokage settled in behind her desk, shifting papers and scrolls to clear the view. She admired the way that the sunlight matched the color of the blonde pigtails and made the green of her haori stand out all the more.

"Tsu-…" She swallowed thickly, nervous. What she was about to say would sound utterly ridiculous and stupid, but how else was she going to change anything? So now was the time, now was the time to strike while Naruto and Sakura were out searching for Sasuke-san.

And hopefully, she would not find herself in Konoha's mental ward after this. A straight jacket would wash out her pale complexion, and with her dark hair, that was already a problem. She almost laughed at her train of thought, and as it was, her lips twitched in amusement.

"Hmm?" Tsunade hummed, waiting for Hinata to continue. She shot the girl a look of pity, taking her hesitance to speak her truth as simple timidity. She picked up her mug, and poured in water from the nearby porcelain pitcher.

Hinata closed her eyes for bit, wondering how to make the biggest impact with one statement. What did one usually do in those novels? Ahhh…knowledge! She frowned inwardly, because she had never been particularly well informed on details and top secret affairs. At least, not until they were divulged or exposed by outside events. Case in point, Naruto being Kurama's Jinchuriki or the Yondaime being his…

'_Got it!'_

She smiled slightly and lifted her gaze towards the Hokage. "Tsunade-sama…I know this might sound crazy…and utterly insane, and oh so stupid, but I-"

Tsunade placed down her cup gently, all ears. She laced her fingers together and waited for the truth to come out.

"I come from the future." She blurted out, and winced, because it sounded just as ridiculous as she had thought. Actually, it was even more so.

The silence stretched uncomfortably, and Hinata began to fidget, falling back on her old habits. Oh how she wished she could have the rug swallow her up, or better yet to go back in time and take back her words. Another fumble in time, another wrinkle in her way.

Then Tsunade-sama began to laugh, a hearty laugh that rang through the office, and poor little Hinata wished she was invisible again, the way she used to be.

'_I want to be a __**ghost.**_'

She clenched her fists, because that thought was forbidden, and as alone and frightened as she felt, knowing what was going to happen, she blurted out her trump card.

"I know that the Yondaime is Naruto-kun's father." She whispered hoarsely, and she closed her eyes in anticipation. She was not disappointed. The raucous guffaws emanating from the Hokage stopped abruptly, and it almost sounded as if she were choking.

Then there was a clink and a crash, and Hinata could picture the mug broken in half by the force of Tsunade-sama's surprise. What a shame, it had been a very pretty mug after all. She waited, and then came the sharp exhale and a sigh.

She opened her eyes to stare at her Hokage, and a small bittersweet smile crossed her face.

"How…HOW DO YOU KNOW?!" Tsunade demanded, her hands slamming on the desk, and her eyes boring into Hinata's own. And for a second, Tsunade thought she saw something deeper underneath the translucent irises of white, an immeasurable pain, something she could identify. She knew that pain, because she had had the same pain in her eyes, experienced the same loss.

But why would she have that expression? Her generation had been lucky, not to experience war. There had been the invasion by Sound and Sand, but that had limited casualties, and she was hard pressed to compare _that _to the Second and Third Shinobi Wars. So there was no logical reason as to why Hinata should have such a haunted look in her pale gaze.

"How?" She asked again, still reaching for rational explanation. Very few knew about Naruto's parentage. So how had this little Hyuuga, this little Chunin gotten a hold of such information? Granted, if one looked hard enough, the resemblance could be uncanny, but most had made no effort to connect the dots, to make the long leap. If there was a breach in information, then the leak needed to be stopped.

Hinata shrugged slightly, and fidgeted slightly. "In the future, it is common knowledge."

Tsunade looked incredulously at the girl. Her information was impressive, but why was she still going on with this future thing.

"Now is **not **the time for jokes Hinata Hyuuga! **How do you know?"**

Hinata panicked internally, because her first play had not been successful, and she cursed her lack of involvement in Konoha's inner affairs. Her "companion" had not given her any advice either, merely telling her that she was limited. A fact that had been ever so kindly hammered into her head since childhood. She ran the timeline in her head, dividing up the months by world shifting events, and the first large one had been the Kazekage rescue.

And now at this time point, Team 7 was off looking for Sasuke-san, then that meant that Jiraiya was investigating the Akatsuki. A mission that would eventually lead to his death, unless…

"How is Jiraiya-sama? I hear the weather in Amegakure is much too wet at this time of year." She said quietly, and then she flinched as another crash resonated, this one much louder, and when she looked, the gorgeous mahogany desk had been reduced to splinters, and the Hokage was giving her the oddest look.

Then Tsunade began. "Hypothetically, if you are here… from how far into the future are you?"

Hinata looked out the window, tilting her head towards the sunbeams, enjoying the warmth. "Two years, give or take."

Tsunade stilled, because two years was so close and she wondered what it all could mean. She looked down at her hands, and noticed that they were shaking. She laced her fingers together again to maintain her composure.

"Why are you here?" She asked quietly.

Hinata turned back to her, mouth agape, because she had actually believed her, despite her lack of information and proof. "You believe me?"

"I don't know yet. I'm still trying to figure out how you would know what you do." She sighed.

Hinata shook her head, her hair shifting against her shoulders and she caught sight of the white strand of hair. She remembered the night when she had shifted time, and she pleaded, that just this once, she could be allowed to use the ability once more. She who was deemed transparent and wispy enough to slip in between the cracks of time, she wished to bend it, if only just a little.

'_The mug.' _ Came the unbidden thought, and following her instinct, Hinata offered her own hands palm up, and the Hokage gave her a distrusting look, because this whole situation was absurd and she was starting to seriously consider placing Hinata Hyuuga under surveillance.

"I'll show you Tsunade-sama, please. _**Please**_ let me do what I can." Came the request, and when she saw the tears beginning to fall, Hinata's desperation clinging to her every movement.

Tsunade placed the fragments of porcelain in the girl's pale palms, and she saw her cup them as if they were delicate little birds, fragile and precious.

After several seconds nothing happened, and then Hinata felt it, she felt time slipping past her and it was as if only pieces of her hands and the fragments of the mug were going backwards, it was the same sensation of starry veins and fuzzy clouds, and she saw her tears float around the rapidly reassembling mug, like tiny dew drops. Her chakra flared blue and the fragments floated above her palms, weaving complicated patterns and reforming a perfectly okay mug, the azaleas crawling up its handle and side.

Tsunade's eyes widened as the image of Hinata's palms became distorted and bent, as if she was observing them through a telescope backwards, and then she noticed the reformation and the blue chakra tangible and melancholy.

Then it stopped, and there in Hinata's delicate grasp was her mug. Tsunade gaped, unable to form a coherent sound.

Hinata's visibly relaxed, because she had given proof. She hissed, the tightness in her chest flaring up again, and then she felt that same pain radiating across her chest. She gave one last happy smile and collapsed, the perfect mug falling to the ground with her and cracking in two.

'_**I am limited.'**_

* * *

On this second chance, Hinata decided to be a little selfish. Her regrets had filled her to the core, tugging at her very self in that white void. And she knew how short life could be, how in an instant _everything, _absolutely everything could be taken away.

And so, this time around, she gathered herself together, images of red and blood and the end of the world filling her mind as she stood in front of him. She thought of his eyes, closed forever and his heart still. Niggling at the back of her mind, and the base of her heart was the thought that this was not right. This was not how things should be done. But she pushed aside these thoughts and concentrated on the here and now. She remembered the novels she had read with stories similar to hers, stories of people trapped in an endless time loop, all in order to teach them some very important lesson.

She tapped her fingers against her kunai holster, thinking on what her lesson might be. And because she prided herself on being a fairly quick learner, she supposed that her lesson had been simply that of _carpe diem_. Satisfied with that conclusion, she turned towards him, her eyes turned to quicksilver and the moon lit up the soft planes of her face.

Naruto for his part grew confused as the soft, timid expression that typically grace his friend's face turned into something altogether too luminescent, and he was reminded of her eyes on that day she had hugged him in welcome. His hand gripped the railing of the bridge, a bit nervous and confused as to why she had called him out here.

Hinata could see him slowly breaking inside, another failed Sasuke retrieval mission, and he had returned broken. She shivered because if things did not go well with Jiraiya-sama's mission, despite the extra precautions, then he would be worse off.

'_This is wrong. Stop it now.'_

Despite the thought, she began.

"I used to always cry and give up… I made many wrong turns… But you… You helped me find the right path, you know Naruto-kun?"

"Hinata-" He said breathlessly, shocked at the depth of her emotions and at the sudden revelation of them.

"It's because you always got back up, no matter what. Like I said before, you are a proud failure and I wanted to catch up to you… I wanted to walk beside you all the time… I just wanted to be with you… You changed me. Your smile is what saved me."

She gave him her best smile, his favorite. It was a smile she reserved only for only those closest to him, and it made her shine so beautifully that he had to remind himself to breathe.

"I'm sorry." She said, blushing and fidgeting in a way that was simply Hinata.

"Huh?! For what?" He asked, confused. Then he smiled back at her, gentle and genuine. "Thank you, Hinata…for believing in me like that. But I don't deserve it- I can't even save one friend…"

He trailed off, and his hand gripped the railing even tighter. He looked out at the river, dwelling on his most recent failure. "I can't even save Sasuke, so how-"

He was stopped when slim arms circled around his waist and he felt the weight of her had against his back, her small hands fisting themselves in his jacket.

"You're wrong." She whispered.

She did not finish her speech, but it was just enough to alter the course of events permanently, and the weight of her decision would cost her.

* * *

In the end, Asuma-sensei had not died. Jiraiya-sama had still perished unfortunately, and Pein still invaded, but they had been prepared enough to evacuate the citizens. Hinata confessed her love in front of Naruto as she took the initial rods for him, leaping to his aid several minutes before her previous attempt had been. This time, all that she needed to say was…

"**I love you."**

And then the multiple rods pierced through her; all meant for Naruto. They hit every fatal point; even though they were not meant to be lethal to the Jinuchuriki, Hinata was a much smaller target. It was over before it even started.

Her last thoughts before she died were that maybe now, with all the information she had given Tsunade-sama, it would be enough to prepare them for what lay ahead. And with this at least, everyone could live and thrive after the war.

'_I think I did okay, this time. Didn't I?' _She asked no one in particular, and slipped into the darkness, dying as the roars of the Kyuubi grew stronger.

* * *

_She woke to find herself in the white void again, and she felt such horror and sadness, as she realized that she had failed. And she had thought she had at least succeeded enough, that __**they**_ _who she treasured most could at least live._

_She curled up into a huddled mass, her lavender jacket ripped and dirty. She sobbed hard, letting out all her frustration and the ache that came from having been so close, so close to __**him. **__And Neji-nii-san had been alive and so had Shino-kun and Kiba-kun._

"_You little fool." Came the cold admonishment, and as she looked to her right, she saw the soft folds of rich, cream silk rippling as her companion approached her. "Did I not tell you that you are limited?"_

_Hinata's sobs had not abated._

"_Something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world, little ghost." _

_Hinata's breath hitched and an intense anger began to bubble up within her. She moved onto her hands and lifted herself up to stand, and even if she was several inches shorter than the Mother of Shinobi and she was powerless to boot, she did not care._

_Icy silver glared into flat white, and Kaguya looked on in surprise, because this little specter of hers had never so much as shown a hint of a temper before._

"_You-you…you did not think to tell me this beforehand? Before I messed up the entire time line, and now they're suffering and who know else had died! You who claim to be so mighty have not a single drop of humanity left!" _

_Kaguya's lips tightened into a thin line, and Hinata grew scared, because If one was already dead, than what was left was oblivion. Or would she be double dead? She had just mouthed off to the greatest shinobi who had ever lived, and now she would have to face the consequences._

_Then Kaguya laughed, unexpectedly. Hinata tilted her head confused and emotions in turmoil, because she had just left the world worse off than it had been, and maybe killed everyone else in the process now, according to this lady._

"_H-how, how can you laugh when the world will nearly end again?" She whispered._

"_It is simple, little fool. When __**you**__ die, the world ends with you."_

_Her eyes grew wide. "W-what?!"_

"_You are the…what do they call it in your terms?" Kaguya tapped her delicate chin. _

"_A-a reset button?"_

"_Exactly." And with that, she tapped her translucent descendant on the head condescendingly. "Are you ready to start again?"_

_Hinata nodded, this time determined to get it right._


End file.
